Romania's former communist
dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, fled Bucharest by helicopter on
22 December 1989. In 12:08 East of Bucharest,
director Corneliu Poromboiu paints a portrait of small town
Romania 16 years after that revolution. Old man Piscosi (Mircea
Andreescu) and school teacher Manescu (Ion Sapdaru) appear
on a local television station to debate how the revolution
played out in Vaslui; soon the town is divided over the
truth. This is a funny, gentle film that understands the
wearying nature of political upheaval.

12:08 took the Camera D'or for best first film at
Cannes in 2006, and it's easy to see why. We get three
strong performances from the central actors - Corban excels
as the bullying, insecure Jderescu - and a tightly
constructed narrative that conjures great interest from
small, anecdotal events. Crucially, it's all held together
by Porumboiu's wonderful lightness of touch; politics, here,
is leavened by a gentle sense of the absurdity of small-town
life, and even some great one liners. An unexpected gem.

I've got a few gripes with this Tartan release. The DVD seems to
be transferred from PAL without proper conversion, resulting in
minor combing (no ghosting though) and a shorter runtime than
the announced one.

The image has hints of edge enhancement and some digital noise
and softness, but it's acceptable. The sound is clear and a DTS
track is included although I can't really see it adding anything
to this film which is quite documentary and "speaky".

I haven't seen the Artificial Eye release but suspect it's
better. A minor complaint is that the menus are somewhat hard to
read with the red background and thin font.

The film was a fun way to spend an hour and a half though, and
I'd recommend watching it. It's good to see how many well made
and interesting films are coming out of Romania lately.